The Possessions of a Cardinal
- Publish Date: 2/5/2010
- Dimensions: 7 x 10
- Page Count: 480 pages Illustrations: 16 color/60 b&w illustrations
- Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-271-03468-3
Hardcover Edition: $85.00Add to Cart
“Both informative and engaging.”
“The editors should be congratulated for bringing together such a lively and thought-provoking volume.”
“In this beautifully produced and generously illustrated book, art historians Mary Hollingsworth and Carol Richardson offer case studies on the activities of cardinals as patrons of art and architecture from 1450 to 1700.”
“[This] volume is impressive in its chronological range, allowing for a sense of historical continuity that transcends the labels of Renaissance and Baroque.”
“The Possessions of a Cardinal brings together a variety of analytic techniques. . . . The collection is also distinguished by innovative methods and richness of content. [It] will be of great interest to historians of Italian art, to art literature scholars, and to specialists in the history of Church ecclesiastics. The book is interesting, informative, and fair, and offers something to the specialist as well as to the more general reader.”
“[Mary Hollingsworth and Carol Richardson] have succeeded in producing a collection that is both attractive and compelling. Visually this is a seductive book, full of cardinal red. . . . This volume presents countless gems for the close reader. Not only is this book a treasure trove of detail concerning early modern Rome, its cardinals, and their families, but it also provides a map of manuscript citations and early printed works. . . . This volume is welcome both for its content and its enthusiasm for a field that has experienced past prejudice.”
Cardinals occupied a unique place in the world of early modern Europe, their distinctive red hats the visible signs not only of impressive careers at the highest rank the pope could bestow, but also of their high social status and political influence on an international scale. Appointed for life, these princes of the Church played a key role in the dramatic events of a period in which both the power and the authority of the papacy were challenged.
Cardinals crossed the ambiguous boundaries then existing between religious and secular power. Granted unparalleled access to Church and private property, they spent considerable time, money, and effort on making the best collections of art and antiquities. Some commissioned artworks in churches that advertised their monastic or national connections, while others took Rome and the papacy abroad to enrich their own cities and countries. But theirs was a precarious dignity: while cardinals could thrive during one papacy, they could suddenly fall from power during the next. The new research represented by the sixteen case studies in The Possessions of a Cardinal reveals how cardinals used their vulnerable position and spent their often substantial wealth on personal and religious interests. As a result, the tensions inherent in their position between the spiritual and the worldly are underscored.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Notes on Currencies, Weights, and Measures
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Mary Hollingsworth and Carol M. Richardson
1. The Renaissance Cardinalate: From Paolo Cortesi’s De cardinalatu to the Present
David S. Chambers
2. Guillaume d’Estouteville’s Italian Journey
Meredith J. Gill
3. Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini (1439–1503), Sant’Eustachio, and the Consorteria Piccolomini
Carol M. Richardson
4. Gabriele Rangone (†1486): The First Observant Franciscan Cardinal and His Chapel in Santa Maria in Aracoeli, Rome
Roberto Cobianchi
5. Cardinal of Naples and Cardinal in Rome: The Patronage of Oliviero Carafa
Diana Norman
6. Cardinal Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena (1470–1520): A Palatine Cardinal
Angelica Pediconi
7. “Per havere tutte le opere . . . da monsignor reverendissimo”: Artists Seeking the Favor of Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici
Sheryl Reiss
8. A Taste for Conspicuous Consumption: Cardinal Ippolito d’Este and His Wardrobe, 1555–1566
Mary Hollingsworth
9. Lost in Antiquities: Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici (1543–1562)
Andrea Gáldy
10. The Court of Humility: Carlo Borromeo and the Ritual of Reform
Pamela M. Jones
11. Contrasting Priorities: Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Cardinal and Grand Duke
Suzanne B. Butters
12. Cardinal Virtues: Odoardo Farnese in His Camerino
Opher Mansour
13. Representing an Alternative Empire at the Court of Cardinal Federico Borromeo in Habsburg Milan
Lucy C. Cutler
14. Cardinal Antonio Barberini (1608–1671) and the Politics of Art in Baroque Rome
Karin Wolfe
15. John Casimir Wasa (1609–1672), Cardinal and Prince of Poland: Problems of Precedence and Primogeniture for Innocent X
Susan Russell
16. “É cortesi, erudito, e disinvolto al pari di qualunque altro buon corteggiano”: Cardinal Camillo Massimo (1620–1677) at the Court of Pope Clement X
Lisa Beaven
17. A Cardinal and His Family: The Case of Cardinal Patrizi
David R. Marshall
Appendixes
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index
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